Thai spiced mackerel pâté

Hello Monday. What a joy to start the week with some good food and a blog post and a spot of crochet on the bus!

There are some really exciting things in the pipeline which are keeping me busy right now, one of which is a supper club, my first! We’re holding it the week before Archie’s birthday in May to raise money for Sands and Tommy’s, two amazing charities. I’ve wanted to do some fundraising for a long time and I’m so excited about hosting a proper supper club and cooking for so many people, it feels like a great personal challenge whilst also doing something positive in memory of our baby. I’m just working on finalising the menu at the moment and placing orders – watch this space.

I also recently did an interview with fashion and lifestyle website Secret Sales, and got to talk about my job as a Food Stylist and why I love it. I’m really chuffed as I love what I do and where I work, so it was a lovely opportunity to talk about it. You can read the interview here.

And even though all these things are exciting and fun, today has been a really lovely calm day, I got a chance to thoughtfully cook myself lunch (and shoot it) before leaving the house and Skype my best mate in Spain – I miss her bad. It feels so good to actually take the time to think about what I need, and want. I’ve been trying hard to make sure we regularly eat fish for some time now as it is such a quick and nutritious source of energy and omega 3’s – proper brain food. However being a Monday fresh fish isn’t really an option, so I went for the smoked kind instead, which is a brilliant fridge staple. I wanted to continue with the wholesome route and decided to make a spiced mackerel pâté , one that is full of flavour and goodness too, and lighter than the normal kind. And even though I can be a bit of a purist (no horseradish or cream cheese?!) I can report it was delicious, insanely quick and easy to make and made a perfect light lunch. It was great for me on my tod (with the leftovers stored in the fridge when I need another hit), but equally it would make a top dinner party appetiser too.

THAI SPICED MACKEREL PATE

Serves 4 -6

1/2 red chilli (deseeded if you don’t want it too hot)

1 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely ground

1 juicy lime

2 spring onions, trimmed

2cm piece of ginger, peeled

2 handfuls of baby spinach

1/2 bunch fresh coriander

1 teaspoon fish sauce

250g smoked mackerel fillets

125g Greek yoghurt

Roughly chop the chilli, ginger and spring onions and place into a food processor with most of the coriander, spinach and black pepper. Blitz until everything is finely chopped then add the yoghurt, fish sauce and squeeze in the juice of the lime. Flake in almost all of the mackerel (discarding the skin) and blitz just enough to bring the pâté together – you want it to be creamy but still have a little texture. Adjust the seasoning, adding a little more fish sauce or lime if needed, then decant into a bowl. Garnish the pâté by flaking over the reserved mackerel and sprinkling with coriander leaves, and serve with crisp breads and crudite.